Pleasure can also be associated with learning. As revealed by a study by the universities of Barcelona (Spain) and the Otto von Guericke of Magdeburg (Germany), which is collected by the journal Current Biology , learning new words gives us the same pleasure as having sex or eating chocolate.
The team of scientists conducted an experiment with 36 adults to see to what extent learning a language could activate the brain’s pleasure and reward center. Thus, the volunteers participated in two MRI sessions in which they had to learn the meaning of new words deducing it through context.
The researchers reconstructed the white matter fibers that connect the different brain regions of the participants, discovering that learning new words activated areas of the brain related to pleasure and reward – the same connections that respond to stimuli as pleasant as a favorite food, the sex or drugs) and that people with a better connection in this area were able to memorize more words and also faster . In addition, if those words were associated with an emotional charge, the result was even better, showing the value of emotions in the learning process.
“The research shows a possible emotional aspect in the development of language, ” says Antoni Rodríguez Fornell, co-author of the study. The conclusions of the work open the door to the exploration throughout the evolution of the human being of one of the most basic instincts: that of communicating.
